Champagne 1e cru Terre de Vertus BDB - Chardonnay

Chardonnay | Vertus 1er Cru 'Les Barillers' | gisting en rijping op foeders en vaten van Stockinger | minimaal 5 jaar gerijpt sur lattes | dosage 0g/l | energiek | lang en verfijnd

Larmandier-Bernier

Champagne wijnboeren tot in perfectie. Niet voor niets worden Pierre en Sophie Larmandier gevierd als één van de beste Champagnemakers. De twee bezitten een topterroir in de Côte de Blancs en maken van bodem tot druif uiteindelijk muziek in het glas. De wijncultuur is biodynamisch, de stokken zijn gemiddeld boven de 30 jaar en de rendementen zijn laag. Al hun Champagnes smaken ontzettend puur en natuurlijk. Befaamde prouducent die zich mag rekenen tot de allerbeste Artisinale Champagne producenten!

Review

Disgorged in 2018 with minimal dosage, the 2013 Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Terre de Vertus unfurls with notes of lemon oil, oyster shell, pastry cream and crisp green apple that gains in definition and purity with time in the glass. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with a pinpoint mousse, lovely venosity, fine depth at the core and a mouthwateringly saline, chalky and decidedly dry finish. As usual, this is a classy and distinctive bottling from Larmandier-Bernier. 94/100 William Kelly

In the 1990s, Pierre Larmandier and his wife Sophie began to work the soils of their vineyards and abandoned the use of herbicides, moving toward organic and then biodynamic farming. They have had few imitators: "I thought I could be five years ahead of the others in giving up on chemical farming," Pierre observed to me, "but I never imagined that I might be fifty years ahead!" Pierre's father had always advocated picking mature fruit, and with the new farming methods, the wines became almost too concentrated and tightly wound, he relates. So, changes in the winery followed suit: fermentation in wood—foudres, demi-muids and barrels (today, mainly from Stockinger)—instead of stainless steel, and the use of ambient instead of selected yeasts. Today, Larmandier-Bernier numbers among the Côte de Blanc's—and Champagne's—finest estates, and with some 19 hectares of vines, their wines are happily not as hard to find as those released by the region's smallest micro-producers. All these recent and forthcoming releases are warmly recommended, and I'll be writing more about the estate in a future issue.